Facebook treating US territories as not part of the United States

Unrecognized territory

When we consider the topic of states and what it means to be a state, most of us think of the standard fifty that we were educated on, back when we were bestowed upon the knowledge of primary colors and cursive characters. Much like a majority of people that get stuck in their ways, it is hard for some to branch off that base of knowledge; therefore the recognition of United States territories seems to fly under all of our radars.

Looking at polls from YouGov, it has been shown that forty-one percent percent of American citizens don’t even realize that individuals born in Puerto Rico are United States citizens. Even forty percent of Hispanics don’t believe this to be the way things are, while a solid eleven percent have no clue on how it is. Citizens of Puerto Rico have been considered natural born American citizens since 1917 and continue to have United States passports.

Stemming off of the lack of state and territory knowledge, we can see further repercussions of the lack of education. This is clearly shown in how Americans view Puerto Rico’s financial difficulties in the moment. Some would argue it isn’t our responsibility since Puerto Rico is merely a territory and some can’t even recognize it is part of the United States.

It is safe to say it is understandable why most Americans have yet to hear about the Puerto Rico debt crisis when most American’s don’t even know it is part of the country they live in. Once this become more public knowledge, it would be interesting to see how the public consensus would change on helping out our very own territory.

About The Author

Hailing from the Central Coast in California Rachel's interests were much more surrounded around the beach and sports until she sat down in her first US Government class at a Southern California college. At the time she had no strong academic direction as far as majors until her one professor made a point by putting a slide up on the projector. The slide contained two pictures: one of the cast from a famous show at the time, while the second had the Justices of the Supreme Court. He asked the names of the cast members- everyone chimed in the correct identification. Then it went to the Supreme Court… nobody knew a single name. It was then that her passion for politics had been born. Now entering her senior year at the University of Oregon she will shortly be wrapping up her college career with a bachelor's degree in political science. Rachel is a former Intern at Pasquines.